


Antanasia Hallows

by Sop12345d



Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Podfic Welcome, Self-Insert, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 09:04:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9172396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sop12345d/pseuds/Sop12345d
Summary: A year and a half has passed since Pitch's defeat, but now the Boogeyman is back and Man in Moon had chosen a new Guardian, Antanasia Hallows, the Spirit of Halloween. But who is this girl and why are the Guardians so wary of her?





	1. Chapter 1

_You've all heard of Halloween. Horror movies, trick-or-treating, candy ad nauseam... But have you ever wondered where it all comes from?_

_Well, I'm here to_   _answer that question. My name is Antanasia Hallows, and I'm the Spirit of Halloween. This is my story._

* * *

"Jack! No fair!" Jamie cried as he felt a cold, wet snowball hit the back of his head. Only Jack could make such a perfect snowball; it was designed to cover the target in freezing, sticky snow.

Jack laughed merrily as he zipped over the boy's head, pelting Jamie's friends as well. They all laughed joyfully and began throwing snowballs at each other, getting into the mood. Suddenly, Pippa pointed at the sky and said in a curious, innocent voice, "I thought that the Northern Lights only happened at night."

Instantly perking up, Jack turned his face skywards and found that there was, indeed, Northern Lights flowing through the sky in the middle of the day. North was sending out the Guardian call! "Sorry guys, but I have to go," he said to the children. They made disappointed sounds, but Jack just laughed and promised them he'd be back in a couple of days to bring them another snow day. Even though it was a week to Halloween, Jack had gotten impatient and caused a light snowfall for his favourite believers.

After saying goodbye, Jack requested the Wind that it take him to North's workshop as soon as possible. On the way there, Jack wondered what could be so urgent that North felt the need to send out the Guardians' Call-Out. Certainly Pitch Black hadn't regained his powers already! It had only been a year and a half since Easter 2012 and the defeat of the Boogeyman.

Finally, Jack arrived at the Workshop at the North Pole. He was the second one to arrive; Bunny had arrived but a few minutes ago.

"North, what-" Jack began to ask the big, burly Russian when he flew through an open window into the Globe Room. But North held up a hand, a silent order to wait until the other Guardians had arrived. And soon, Tooth and Sandy arrived as well, Tooth with an entourage of mini-fairies and Sandy with a question mark made out of sand over his head.

"Okay! Now that we all here, I explain reason for call-out!" North said in his broken English.

"Yeah mate, what was that for? I only have five months to prepare until Easter!" Bunny complained. Jack snickered and muttered something about a fussy kangaroo and Bunny said warningly, "Watch it, Frostbite!" to Jack.

North promptly ignored the two and turned towards Tooth, who was still chattering with her mini-fairies about the many places in the world where teeth needed to be collected. "Tooth! Pay attention! Is important!" he exclaimed, and Tooth finally took notice of the serious tone of his voice and shushed her mini-fairies.

"Now..." North began. "Today, I was preparing for Christmas and everything was ordinary, until Man in Moon spoke to me!"

Gasps were heard around the room. The Man in the Moon hardly ever spoke to the Guardians unless it was very important.

North continued. "He showed me Pitch's shadow, then he lit up Guardian Crystal!" Everyone gasped in shock again except for Jack, who didn't know what the Guardian Crystal was.

"Um, what's a Guardian Crystal?" he asked tentatively, wondering what the fuss was about. Sure, Pitch was back, but after defeating him last year, Jack didn't doubt his abilities in winning a fight against the shadow spirit again.

Tooth answered Jack's question. "The Man in the Moon only ever lights up the Guardian Crystal when he's choosing a new Guardian!"

Then Bunny spoke up. "That's what he did a year and a half ago when he chose you, Frostbite."

"Then... who did he choose, North?" Jack asked the man, who had stayed silent while the others were explaining the Guardian Crystal to him.

"I not know," North admitted, his expression somber. "Man in Moon said wait until others arrive, so I send Guardian Call-Out."

_But why would the Man in the Moon choose a new Guardian now?_ Sandy signed using his golden dream sand.

Bunny agreed with Sandy. "Yeah! Since when do we need help with defeating Pitch?" Jack huffed and was about to point out that they certainly had needed his help last year to defeat Pitch, but something in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he stopped to observe it. A beam of moonlight was shining upon a large crystal with the Guardian symbol on it in the corner of the room. He quickly pointed this out to the other Guardians, who rushed over and stood in a circle around the crystal, trying to guess who would be the new Guardian.

"Maybe it's Spencer Valentine!" Tooth guessed, meaning the Spirit of Valentine's Day.

"Ugh. I hope it's not. I just wish it's not the groundhog." Bunny said with a groan.

Sandy made a sand four-leaf clover over his head and Jack interpreted, "Maybe the Leprechaun?" Sandy nodded to confirm Jack's interpretation.

Finally, the figure that the Man in the Moon was creating cleared and everyone got a vivid image of a girl of average height with black hair, orange eyes, greyish skin, a black Grim Reaper-like hood and a scythe.

North concluded in surprise, "Antanasia Hallows."


	2. Chapter 2

"Antanasia Hallows?!" Bunny exclaimed, his whiskers quivering with indignation. "That girl is many things, but a Guardian? I don't bloody think so."

"Why? What's wrong with her?" Jack asked, perusing the smirking girl on the pedestal with curiosity.

"Jack, she's dangerous," Tooth replied, fluttering closer with a serious expression that looked odd on the fairy's normally cheerful face. "She's ancient. Older than Sandy, even."

Jack's eyes widened as he tried to comprehend being so old and looked to Sandy for confirmation. Sandy nodded solemnly and Jack said, "Really? Then how old is she?"

"Older than all of us put together, probably," Bunny answered, studying his boomerangs moodily. "Like Tooth said, that sheila is dangerous and definitely  _not_ Guardian material."

"Is true," North chimed in. "She once send a big, orange box with bow on it to Workshop and out come hundreds of vampire bats!"

Sandy nodded and with a shimmer of sand, began to describe an event a few tens of thousands of years ago when Antanasia had struck up a deal with the ghosts and ghouls of the Underworld so they would be let out one night a year on October 31 and wouldn't cause trouble for the rest of the year.

"So  _that's_ how Halloween came to be," Jack muttered to himself, putting the pieces together. "Wait, the Underworld is real?"

"Jack, Jack, Jack," North chuckled. "You are talking to Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Sandman, yet you doubt Underworld is real?"

Jack blushed. "Touché."

"Well, what do we do now?" Tooth asked, her mini fairies following her as she paced mid-air.

"Shouldn't we go find her and tell her that the Moon wants her to be a Guardian?" Jack suggested, thinking that was the most logical thing to do.

"Are you crazy?!" Bunny asked, incredulous. "You don't just go  _looking_ for her."

"Why not?" Jack asked stubbornly. To him, the Guardians were acting unreasonably and they were probably exaggerating about Anatanasia being dangerous.

"Why not? Because if she doesn't slice you in two with that bloody scythe of hers first, her werewolf friends will shred you to pieces or her vampire minions will drain your blood!"

Jack still refused to think the worse of her without properly meeting the girl first. "I don't care. I think you guys are overreacting. Where does she live, anyway?"

Tooth shook her head, but replied anyway. "The Blackwell Haunted House in Transylvania, Romania." She looked up to see Jack's figure disappearing out a window. "Jack, come back! Don't go there!" But it was too late. Jack was long gone.

* * *

Jack descended with the Wind's help onto a blackened rooftop atop a decrepit, Victoria-style mansion in Transylvania. He observed his surroundings and saw a couple of pumpkin patches, a graveyard and a weird-looking gate that seemed to lead to nowhere.

Suddenly, he felt a stone cold hand grab his arm from behind, twist and pin it, rather painfully, against his back. Jack gasped in surprise and pain, which just made the owner of the frighteningly cold hand (even colder than himself) twist his arm even more. God, this person was strong.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" a voice hissed angrily in his ear.

"J-Jack F-Frost," Jack stuttered, trying to regain his composure. "I'm here to see An-Antanasia Hallows."

"Hmmm..." the voice hummed, and Jack could smell the irony smell of blood in the air. Bunny's words of, "vampire minions will drain your blood" came back to him and he shivered, wondering why he had to be so goddamn impulsive sometimes.

"Stay here," the voice said, and with a rush of air, the hand gripping his arm disappeared. Jack quickly turned and looked behind him to see... nobody. There was no one there. Creepy!

All of a sudden, the piece of roof that Jack was standing on caved in and he fell, screaming, into the deep, murky depths of the haunted house.

* * *

After many bumps and thumps, Jack finally landed with a  _thud_ on a creaky wooden floor. He winced and crawled to his feet, feeling the pattern of the aged floorboards on his bare feet. He grabbed his staff from where it had miraculously landed next to him and looked around. The room he had landed in was half shaded in darkness and there seemed to be nobody there but himself, but Jack could feel several pairs of eyes on him as he walked around, examining the peeling wallpaper and the spiderwebs in the corners with huge, fat spiders sat waiting for any unwary prey. Jack shuddered. The spiders were bigger than both of his hands put together.

A cold blade was suddenly pressed against his neck and a soft hand tightened on his shoulder in an iron grip to prevent him from moving away. He inhaled sharply in surprise. Jack swallowed and peeked down at the blade.

It was a scythe.


	3. Chapter 3

"Wh-who are you?" Jack stammered. The hand tightened painfully on his shoulder and the scythe pressed harder on his pale neck until it drew a thin line of blood. "What do you want?"

" _What are you doing here?_ " a voice whispered in his hear suddenly, and Jack shivered at the closeness of it. The accent was one he had never heard before. It sounded ancient and, well, _dead._

"I'm Jack Frost. I was s-sent here to recruit Antanasia Hallows for Guardianship."

A loud, derisive laugh pierced the sudden silence of the room. " _Do not dare to believe that you can fool me, boy. What are you_ really  _here for?_ " the voice hissed angrily.

"I'm not trying to fool you! Man in Moon wants Antanasia to be a Guardian!" Jack protested. There were chuckles and murmurs coming from the shadows now, but Jack tried his best to ignore them.

" _Man in Moon, did you say? And why would Man in Moon want the terrifying, master-of-the-dark Antanasia Hallows to be a_ Guardian,  _Jack Frost?"_ the voice, a girl, Jack decided, asked him mockingly.

"I don't know. Why don't you ask him?" the winter spirit shot back.

He gasped as he was wrenched away from the wall, roughly turned so his back was to it and slammed against it again. A pair of fierce orange eyes met his in the darkness and Jack was momentarily captivated by how they seemed to light up the gloom, despite the anger burning bright in them, like twin mini fires.

" _Do not talk back to me. Do you even know who you are dealing with?_ " the voice said softly, yet with a hint of danger. And with that, the lights flickered on, and Jack was graced with the sight of the room he had landed in. Of course, that included the creatures that made up the perimeter of it, too.

He suppressed a terrified shriek at what he saw. There were people, if they could be called that, surrounding him and the owner of the voice, who was wearing a cloak that shrouded their face with the exception of the burning orange eyes. The people had skin like ivory and their eyes, their  _eyes,_ for god's sake! Their eyes were colourless, lifeless,  _empty._ A few of them snarled and Jack caught a glance of sharp canines and put two and two together. Vampires.

And not just vampires. There were also huge men surrounding him, except they weren't just men, if the coarse fur covering their bare torsos were anything to by. Plus, the men had long noses, almost like snouts, and their mouth was framed in a frightening grin, animal-like teeth on full display. Werewolves.

And if that weren't enough, Jack saw transparent ghosts floating two feet off the ground, smirking witches with crooked pointy hats and plenty of other creatures that he'd previously believed only to be myths designed to scare children. Finally, they formed a close circle around him and the person with the orange eyes took off their cloak to reveal...

Antanasia Hallows.

Jack fainted.

* * *

"What is taking the gumby so long!" Bunny grumbled. "He just up and flies off to the most dangerous place in the spirit world after Pitch's lair and he's not back yet!"

"Calm, calm, Bunny. No need to be worried," North placated the Guardian of Hope.

"I am NOT worried about the anklebiter!" Bunny protested loudly.

Sandy was frowning, and had been frowning since Jack had left a few hours before. Finally, he formed some sand images above his head.  _Should we go after him?_

"I don't know, Sandy," Tooth replied, fluttering this way and that. "I want to make sure Jack's alright, but what if it's a trap?"

"A trap? Vhat do you mean, Toothie?" North asked.

"What if... what if Antanasia captured Jack when he arrived and is waiting for us to rescue him so she can capture us?" Tooth answered hesitantly.

"Capture us? For what? She may be a bloody dangerous sheila, Tooth, but she's no Pitch. She'll leave you alone if you leave her alone," Bunny proclaimed.

"Is true. Antanasia probably threaten Jack and send him on way back here," the Russian said optimistically.

Just then, there was a shimmering of purple in the shadows and Antanasia Hallows herself stepped out, holding a certain unconscious Guardian of Fun by his hood.

"What did you do to him, you bloody creep?!" Bunny yelled furiously, boomerangs and egg bombs raised. The others noticed her presence and raised their weapons too, livid glares on each face directed towards her.

"Oh, Guardians, what a lovely welcome. I see you're no different than a thousand years ago, when we last met," the girl answered nonchalantly. She dropped Jack onto a nearby couch and continued, "As for your winter spirit, I didn't do anything to him. I merely asked him why he was barging in on my home and he fainted."

"Probably fainted from seeing all your hideous monster friends, more like it," Tooth muttered as she zipped over to inspect Jack for any injuries. She found none except for the bruises in the shape of a hand on his wrist and on his shoulder and the small cut on his neck, which was already closing.

North saw the injuries, however small, and glowered at the Spirit of Halloween. "If you  _ever_ go near Jack again..." he threatened, thick hands clenching his swords.

"Oh, please, North. Do stop with the threats, now. They don't suit you. Now, Jack mentioned a small matter which has me a bit confused..." Antanasia said, starting to pace around the room. When she came near the gathered yetis and elves, they scuttled back, the elves hiding under toys and in corners, the yetis grumbling nervously. With a wave of her hand, her cloak changed to a shiny black V-neck shirt and orange flowing skirt that went to her knees. Her feet were covered with purple leather cowgirl boots. Of course, her scythe remained in her hand.

_Do you mean that Man in Moon chose you to be a Guardian?_ Sandy signed.

"Yes, I did mean that matter, Sandman." No one was surprised that she could understand Sandy. The girl had vampire bat spies all over the world; she must have picked up on the symbol language sometime while observing another Guardian translate for the Guardian of Dreams.

"Well, what about it? Man in Moon has finally gone off his rockers, is all," Bunny growled.

"Bunny!" Tooth exclaimed, frowning at him disapprovingly.

"What? You can't seriously believe that  _this_ sheila," here he pointed at Antanasia, "is a proper potential Guardian! She'd just join Pitch as soon as we confronted him."

"Pitch?" the girl asked, and for once the angry and dangerous tone of her voice was gone, replaced by something else, something the Guardians couldn't identify.

"Yeah. You know, Pitch Black, the Boogeyman? Your  _friend?_ " Bunny mocked.

"He is NOT my friend!" Antanasia roared in sudden anger, and a strong wind  _whooshed_ through the Workshop, showing her power when angry.

"How are we supposed to know? You're just like him, in every way!" Bunny yelled back. They were in each other's faces by now, each countenance seething with rage. Surprisingly, only Bunny's face showed hatred.

"You think I'm like  _Pitch?_ What are you, blind?! I couldn't care  _less_ about your petty arguments. Just leave me  _out of it!_ " she howled.

Bunny was about to retort, but he was interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream. They all turned as one to see who had screamed.

It was Jack.


	4. Chapter 4

Everyone but Antanasia simultaneously jumped at the bloodcurdling scream. North, Tooth, Bunny and Sandy turned towards their youngest member, worry appearing on each of their faces, despite how much some of them (namely, Bunny) would deny it vehemently later.

"Jack!" Tooth exclaimed, fluttering close to her Sweet Tooth and hovering there, shaking his writhing form. It looked like the winter spirit was still asleep.

"He's having a nightmare," Bunny deduced solemnly, stepping up beside the couch. No one noticed how Antanasia's head snapped up suddenly.

Sandy made a ball of dream sand and tried to throw it at Jack's head, but as soon as it hit the young Guardian of Fun, the sand exploded away and dispersed into the air around them. Confused and panicked expressions appeared on the faces of the Guardians, which turned to worry while they listened to poor Jack's tortured screams.

"Let me see," a voice said from behind them, and they all flipped their heads around, startled, to see Antanasia offering to help someone.

This day just got weirder.

"There is no flipping  _way_ I'm going to let you near him," Bunny growled, one paw on one of his boomerangs. He wore a fearsome glower, directed at the Halloween spirit at 120% strength. Tooth's fists curled up as she, too, rose from her hover and blocked Jack's body from Antanasia's view. Soon after, North joined them, leaving only Sandy to continue desperately to try and get rid of Jack's nightmare.

"I only want to help," Antanasia placated with her hands up. She even put her scythe back in it's sheath on her back so her hands remained weaponless. "I think I know how to weaken the nightmare sand enough that the Sandman's dream sand get rid of it."

The Guardians looked doubtful, but they finally acknowledged that they needed her and stepped out of the way. Antanasia took a few steps forward and kneeled next to the couch, one hand on Jack's shoulder to prevent him from moving too much, the other moving to the nightmare sand swirling around the winter spirit's head. She opened her hand and sparkling purple sand flowed out. It was her Halloween magic. Antanasia leaned forward and carefully blew it from her palm to the black sand, where the purple mingled with the black until the sand shimmering over Jack's head was thoroughly purple. Jack's jerks and pitiful shrieks became less frequent, and were even followed by small quirks of his lips afterwards, as if he had simply been frightened by a prank, then found it funny when it he realized the joke was on him.

Sandy gave the Halloween spirit an odd, contemplative look before reaching out with his dream sand again and converting the Halloween sand into dream sand, making Jack relax with a sigh into the couch, a soft, childlike smile on his lips. The Guardians all sighed, relieved, before they started to get down to business again. Of course, it was Bunny who was the first to gather his senses.

"Okay, Hallows," he began rudely, hair bristling. Antanasia looked sharply at him, a matching scowl on her face, and he continued, "I want to know what you did to the nightmare sand there, and how Jack, of all people, got a nightmare."

Antanasia narrowed her eyes for a moment, then replied, "I'll answer the second question first. It isn't impossible for a spirit to get a nightmare, just very rare. And all I did was convert the nightmare sand to my Halloween sand, which weakened its strength enough so that Sandman could convert it to dream sand."

"But... why?" Tooth asked, looking up from her seat on the couch, where she had settled after the panic had died down from Jack's nightmare.

"Why  _what_?" Antanasia snapped, a frown on her ancient face as she turned abruptly from them.

"Why did you help Jack?" Tooth pressed.

"Because I could," Antanasia answered shortly. She then removed her scythe from her sheath and pointed it at them. "Don't think that I'll be there to help you next time. I have better things to do than to help stupid little winter spirits who break into my grounds."

"Ah, yes, about that," North hastened to explain. "Man in Moon vanted you to be Guardian, so Jack vent to look for you. I'm sure he meant no harm."

Antanasia rolled her eyes, clearly irritated. She waved her hand and the black cloak was back, trailing a couple of feet behind her. "Well, make sure it doesn't happen again. You're lucky one of my vampire servants found me. If I hadn't been informed of Frost's arrival, one of my werewolves would've shredded him into little pieces."

North looked, expectedly, disturbed at this remark, but nodded and promised. "Vhat about Guardianship?" he asked when Antanasia turned to go.

They saw the Halloween spirit's shoulder rise and fall in a great sigh before turning around again to face them with a look of disbelief on her face. "Are you actually serious about that?"

"Unfortunately," Bunny muttered under his breath. However, Antanasia had great hearing and easily heard him, clenching her jaw in a rare show of self-restraint.

"Well, tell the Moon that he's gone mad, because even if I wanted to become a Guardian, I wouldn't be a good one," she remarked.

"Finally! Someone's showing some sense around here!" Bunny exclaimed, gesturing wildly to Antanasia. "Granted, it's  _this_ sheila, but nonetheless, Hallows is the only one who seems to be sane today, apart from me!"

"Bunny!" Tooth admonished, glancing at Antanasia. Antanasia just bowed her head and leaned against her scythe, apparently tired.

"What? You can't be serious when you say that you're going to let  _her_ be a Guardian of the children of the world! She'd just scare them of their wits and give them traumatizing nightmares!"

That last bit was apparently the stick that broke the camel's back. "I. Do.  _Not._  Give. Children. Nightmares," she bit out slowly and quietly, which was somehow more terrifying than if she had yelled.

"Oh really? And how would you know? All you do is prank children until they're too bloody terrified to sleep at night. You're just like  _Pitch!_ " Bunny proclaimed.

"I. Am.  _Not._  Like. Pitch.  _How dare you,_ " Antanasia hissed threateningly, eyes burning a scalding titian, which should have been the Guardians' first warning that this had gone way too far. She stepped closer to Bunny, scythe in a death grip (pun intended) in one of her hands, the other being in a tight fist. Bunny started to look nervous, but he held on, glaring at Antanasia hatefully.

"I dare because it's the truth, sheila," he retorted, crouching in a fighting pose as she neared him. Soon, they were in each other's faces again, except this time, it wasn't Jack screaming who broke them apart; it was Jack waking up.

"Bunny, leave her alone."


	5. Chapter 5

They were interrupted by a hoarse voice. "Bunny, leave her alone."

Everyone swivelled to the couch, where Jack was just getting up. He massaged his throat as if he was in pain (and it was no surprise he was - all that screaming and shrieking!) and glared at Bunny.

Bunny looked shocked that  _Jack,_ of all people, would be defending Hallows, but he stubbornly kept up his argument. "Jack, she bloody near  _scared_ you to death."

Antanasia looked surprised at Jack's attitude as well, but said nothing, sheathing her scythe again. "Bunny, she didn't do anything. Lay off her," Jack asserted.

The Pooka warrior didn't look pleased, but he moved away from the Halloween spirit, grumbling all the while. "Fine," he bit out.

Jack and Antanaisa finally came face to face for the second time, although this time, the setting wasn't a dark, terrifying mansion full of monsters. Antanasia stood just an inch taller than Jack and her skin looked positively black compared to his pale skin, but they still looked at each other oddly. Jack's eyes scrutinized her face, as if searching for something interesting, while Antanasia considered Jack's attire of blue hoodie, brown pants and staff. Oh wait - staff...

"Ugh," Antanasia muttered to herself, slapping a hand to her forehead. The Guardians peered at her curiously, as if to ask,  _What is it now?_ and she amended, "I forgot Frost's staff at my house."

This brought Jack's attention, alright. "You did  _what?_ We need to go get it!"

Tooth rolled her eyes and Bunny looked annoyed. "Do we have to get it now? We have Pitch to fight?" he announced loudly.

"Well, I'm not apologizing, rabbit. I was too busy gathering the unconscious form of your youngest Guardian to drop him off here. Tell me, do you always let your youngest go outside with such a lack of supervision?" Her tone was mocking, sharp.

North looked up in alarm at her voice from where he had been instructing one of his Yetis to go ready the sleigh. The Yeti hurried away, glad to be going far away from Antanasia, and North turned towards the ancient spirit. "Now, Antanasia, Bunny. For time being, ve must play nice vith each other. Until Pitch is defeated once more, da?" He looked between the scowling countenances of Bunny and Antanasia, but both nodded begrudgingly.

With a loud  _slap_ which startled everyone in the room, North clapped his hands together and proclaimed, "Okay! Let's get show on road! Ve get going on sleigh to Blackwell Haunted House!" And with that, he was off to the sleigh room, not checking if anyone was following. Tooth and Sandy sighed, but followed nevertheless. Tooth took the lead while Sandy stayed behind to bring up the rear, keeping an eye on Bunny, Jack and Antanasia. The walk to the sleigh room passed without incident and by the time they had entered, the sleigh was all ready and the reindeer seemed raring to go.

North was in the sleigh already, reins in huge hands, and remarked, "'Bout time you got here! Come, ve go." He gestured with one hand for them to come into the sleigh, and they all did, with the exception of Bunny (obviously) and Antanasia (surprisingly).

"Uh-uh. No way, North. I have suffered through these bloody sleigh rides one too many times," Bunny protested, shaking his head adamantly.

And too everyone else's astonishment, Antanasia joined him in his objections. "Seriously? You intend to have me board this rickety little thing?" She crossed her arms. "I don't think so."

"Oh, Bunny! You know is fine sleigh." He grabbed Bunny by the shoulder and tugged him into the sleigh, ignoring his cry of indignation. Then, turning to the wide-eyed Antanasia, North announced, "Is safe, Antanasia! Cross my swords!" And she was roughly pulled into the sleigh, landing next to Bunny with a grunt.

Jack openly laughed at the both of them, but they ignored him, instead gazing at each other curiously; it seemed that the two volatile personalities had found common ground, however small it was. North took advantage of their distraction and they were off, twisting through the ice tunnels (or 'loop-de-loops', as North called them) to the accompaniment of Bunny's yells, Antanasia's unexpected high-pitched screams and Jack and Tooth's guffaws.

At last, they arrived in the open, albeit windy, light of day and North shook one of his famous snow globes, muttered, "Blackwell Haunted House," and threw it before the reindeer. The air exploded into a myriad of colours and with a huge  _whoosh,_ they arrived at the countryside of Romania. A few miles to their left were the warm and welcoming lights of Transylvania, but in every other direction there was thick blackness. The moon didn't seem to be out tonight.

Suddenly, Antanaisa stopped her groaning about the sleigh ride and remarked, "Okay, I'd better take it from here." She stepped carefully from the back of the sleigh to the front, where North was sitting with the reins in his hands, looking bewilderedly at her.

"Pardon?" Tooth asked, incredulous. They all shared a sidelong confused glance.

"My mansion has a protection charm on it to hide it from anyone who has teleported to the immediate area. You could be flying over it and you'd never see it," was the Halloween spirit's explanation.

North conceded to her the reins and she somewhat expertly steered them in a full circle and they headed in the opposite direction of where they had been originally going. North blushed, embarrassed that he had gotten the direction so wrong, while everyone else just looked out of the sides of the sleigh curiously, waiting to see Antanasia's home. Everyone, with the exception of Bunny. He was more worried that Antanasia had lied to them and that she was taking them to Pitch or something So, he kept a firm hold on a boomerang with one hand and an egg bomb with the other.

After a couple of minutes, Antanasia stopped the reindeer and ordered them to circle down. "We're here," she announced.

"Yeah, I think we noticed that," Bunny snapped at her.

Jack was looking at the pair of them again with a warning on his face, so the argument didn't continue. But then again, Antanasia was a bit preoccupied with landing the sleigh on her roof without crashing to fire back a retort.

Finally, they landed, albeit with a small  _crunch._ North looked a bit upset at the noise (he doted on his sleigh like it was his own son), but they all got out without complaint. The reindeer started pawing the ground and snorting, however, as soon as they did, like they were impatient to leave again.

"Vhat's wrong, Vixen?" North asked one of his reindeer, who grunted in a high-pitched wine in reply.

"Oh, don't worry. They're just nervous because they can sense the barghests hunting. They'll be in the surrounding forest by now," Antanasia reassured him.

Funnily enough, North didn't feel reassured. "What are barghests?" Tooth asked, intrigued.

Antanasia paused, then laughed. It wasn't a classic evil laugh, per se, but more of a... creepy giggle. Like one you'd expect from a supposedly inanimate doll in a horror movie. The shivers were still wracking the Guardian's spines when she finally answered, "Oh, they're one of my property guards. Here, I'll call one for you." She howled a long note, making the leaves on the trees rustle and the roof creak. This sound made the hairs on the back of the Guardians' necks rise to attention.

All of a sudden, an answering howl was heard, but it was somehow more horrible. It was deeper, and - and  _wilder._ They looked over the edge of the roof to the sable ground far below and observed as a pair of blood-red eyes slowly approached the mansion. The air was still and silent. Antanasia opened her hand and a small flame sparked into life. She threw it and it became a ball of light that fell down, down, down, all the way to where the barghest was watching, and hovered.

By the light of Antanasia's creation, the Guardians could see what was getting the reindeer so upset. It was a ghastly and horrid sight; two crimson eyes were set in a perpetually snarling face, which showed off yellow teeth as sharper than Antanasia's scythe. Silvery fur coated the elongated form, which had short, more canine back legs and feet, but longer, more human front legs and hands. The claws, they could see, were already covered in blood.

It bayed upwards, a doleful, woebegone sound that was the straw that broke the camel's (or reindeer's, in this case) back. The reindeer grunted and whined and took off into the sky, disappearing into the vast darkness.


	6. Chapter 6

"Vixen! Rudolph! Come back! Is just wolf!" North tried, but it was no use. The Guardians watched the departing reindeer gallop away into the horizon, dismayed. However, their attention was drawn away to a mischievous giggle, namely, Antanasia laughing at them.

Bunny scowled at her like she'd done it on purpose. but for once she ignored his dirty looks. "Come on," she said, still trying to quash her mirth. "Let's go inside, get the staff and start planning."

They reluctantly followed, still giving the snarling barghest on the ground nervous looks, but this reminded Antanasia that her guard was still waiting for orders and she hurried back and growled something to the beast before retrieving her orb of fire, putting it out and continuing on her way. "Coming?" she asked with a mocking grin. The barghest below ran off back into the woods, still baring its teeth.

Bodies tense, breath shallow, the Guardians shadowed her (pun intended, for there were black abysses of shadows everywhere in the moonless night) into a hidden entrance in the roof leading to the top floor hallway. One by one, they all jumped down, each landing in a heap onto the dusty carpet. Somehow, none of them could keep their balance, and as soon as a Guardian laughed at another who fell (like how Bunny laughed at Jack, of course), that Guardian would fall as well. By the time they were all (finally!) standing upright, Antanasia was gripping her sides and positively howling (again, pun intended) with laughter. Knowing her, she probably put a special imbalance charm on the floor.

At last, they followed her single file down twisting staircases and through curving hallways, through crooked doorways and up steep steps. The house was certainly bigger than it looked on the inside. They knew that they had reached their destination when they met a rather exquisite set of doors, painted a shimmering rich violet with a brass door knocker in the very centre of the right door. The door knocker was actually a grotesque gargoyle which stared down at them aloofly, its cold metal eyes flicking to each Guardian before finally coming to rest on the outlandish tangerine eyes of Antanasia. She nodded and the door knocker somehow _knocked on the door by itself_ and the great entryway swung open grandly.

The room beyond the doors was not what they expected. Each Guardian, even Jack, had assumed that Antanasia's office would be dark and dusty with ghoulish creatures in the corners and bats hanging from the ceiling. In the eerie creatures aspect, they were not mistaken, but otherwise the scene couldn't be any more different from what they had all been predicting.

The walls were painted a fresh plum, the floors draped in thick carpets of velvety moss (actual moss!) and near the far wall, a desk of Indonesian mahogany stood proudly with a maroon stuffed armchair behind it. A clinking orange crystal chandelier, full of tall, yet melting, cream candles, hung overhead. It was clinking because there were about a half dozen bats flitting about it like moths; it seemed that they weren't as blind as _regular_ bats (meaning: they were vampires). Off to the side, two Victorian-era-style couches and a rocking chair made up a sitting area, where a few ghosts were milling about, not seeming to mind that sometimes their forms would cross and their transparency became slightly more solid. To the right, a huge red dog bed was set comfortably into the corner, where countless black cats slept and purred, making one loud vibrating sound that seemed to shake the very floor. Candy from all over the world had been collected in clear glass bowls and set on small tables around the room for people to eat, alongside a strange neon lime drink that the Guardians didn't dare touch, for it was fizzing dangerously. A parliament of owls hooted just outside, as could be seen by one window on each side of the desk, which looked out to the estate and to the thick, murky forest beyond.

All of a sudden, shrieking laughter erupted from another corner and the Guardians jerked and turned as one to look as a crowd of hobgoblins pushed one of their party into the neon lime drink. The Guardians held their breath as the unlucky hobgoblin climbed out and they positively gulped as it landed, sopping wet and strangely glistening _purple,_ not green, on the floor. All of the hobgoblins laughed again and their shiny purple teeth caught the flickering light of the chandelier as they tossed their heads back and guffawed some more.

Their attention was wrenched back to Antanasia, who had been taking this all in silently behind them but who was now pushing through to the front of the group. One by one, all of the creatures in the room finally noticed her presence and they bowed to her respectfully, all falling silent. She held her head high and waved a hand, and they went back to their respective business (though slightly quieter now) while her attire transformed into a spiky-looking purple dress with a V-neck and emeralds in a chain running down the skirt. On her back was a sweeping inky black cloak that didn't seem to reflect light and her scythe was in her grip once more.

Needless to say, the Guardians were absolutely awestruck by the display.

* * *

After conjuring some more armchairs, each tailored to the size of each Guardian, they sat down and got to business. A ghost of man looking to be around 40 years old but with the clothes of someone from the Middle Ages walked through the far wall holding Jack's staff and Antanasia thanked him and gave it to its rightful owner. The Guardians stared as the man walked back through the wall surprisingly quickly for a ghost, then turned back to their host.

"Alright, is there anything else you can tell me about Pitch's return?" Antanasia asked, saying Pitch's name like a curse word.

"No, just that he's back and that he's definitely not going quietly this time," Bunny piped up, studying one of his boomerangs.

The spirit of Halloween didn't look impressed at the information (or rather, lack thereof). "There's nothing else that you can tell me? How many nightmares he has? If he's invented another creature to do his bidding? What his _plan_ is?" Nobody replied. She sighed and clasped her wiry hands together in deep thought.

"Sorry, but Man in Moon never really gives us a lot of knowledge to work with," Jack remarked in a marginally bitter tone of voice, still hurt from those 300 years alone with no advice and no friends. The other Guardians caught the acidity in his words and glanced at him worriedly. Antanasia noticed their distress, but said nothing of it and filed the observation away for further perusing later.

"Well, who do we have on our side? I can get my vampires and the black cats to spy around the places that he's known to lurk, like that ridiculous hole under the bed of his. I could enlist the help of the werewolves and the barghests to actually physically fight, as almost all of my other subjects are useless at fighting." Now, Antanasia was talking more out loud to herself than to the Guardians, who were rapt with attention to her words. "The ghosts can transfer information to us from the bats if they spot him; they can move quickly from one corner of the world to another in an instant. Then again, so can I." Here, she laughed a high-pitched giggle, then sobered and went on. "The witches can guard the house here; they have enough spells and charms in their inventory to ward Pitch and his cronies off until I can get back. The imps and hobgoblins are useless; they'd only do something if I promised them an opportunity to prank someone... Actually, that could work - I've always wanted to see Pitch's face when he sees his lair painted fluorescent pink." By now, she was grinning, showing off her unusually sharp canines as the smile spread from pointed ear to pointed ear (yes, her ears were pointed like an elf).

"The yetis can assist as well. They helped in the last battle. So did elves, actually; always eager to serve, crazy little things." This was from North, who chuckled to himself, thinking of how the tiny creatures with their characteristic pointy red hats had jumped bravely onto the nightmares and started biting them.

"My tooth fairies will be willing to help in any way possible," Tooth offered with a smile as her current entourage of fairies chittered and chattered excitedly around her, all nodding their heads and pushing their tiny fists into their palms to show how eager they were to get back at the spirit who had locked them up and rendered them flightless.

Bunny, reluctant, remarked, "I've got these huge, stone, egg warrior statues that can help with the fighting. If I don't need 'em fer something else, ya know." He shrugged nonchalantly, now inspecting an egg bomb.

Sandy rolled his eyes at the Pooka's behaviour, but signed, _I can make sand creatures that destroy the nightmares if you can weaken the nightmare sand beforehand. It seems that Pitch has created a nightmare sand that is strong enough to withstand my dream powers alone, but with our combined sands, it should work._

"What, you mean like this?" Antanasia asked, creating with a flourish of her hand two identical horses made out of, as always, purple sand. Sandy nodded enthusiastically and the horses dissolved and the sand dissipated.

All eyes turned to Jack, who was the only one who hadn't offered his help yet. "Yeah, I'll help by any means I can." They nodded and left Jack to his previous thoughts, which were of how all the other Guardians had allies or could make allies while he was, even though he was a Guardian now, perpetually alone. He had been offered to live in the Workshop at the North Pole by North himself, but Jack had turned him down in favour of living alone; he was too used to those 300 years of solitude. But that didn't mean that his solitude had to be spent _completely_ alone, did it?

Jack's contemplation was put on the back burner for the time being when he realized that the others were still talking, apparently figuring out some more details about the plan of attack on Pitch. "So, Antanasia, after all this, do you plan on being a Guardian?" It was Tooth who finally dared ask the question.

The atmosphere become a little stiff at that, but the spirit of Halloween replied curtly, "That's none of your business. I'll decide that matter when we're done with the extermination of that rat who calls himself Pitch." The name-calling redirected the other Guardians' attention to the eventual battle with Pitch, but Jack's mind was still stuck on something that had been bothering him for a while; ever since he had woken up from the horrible yet thankfully rare nightmare in the Workshop, in fact.

Just why did Antanasia hate Pitch _so much?_


	7. Chapter 7

The Guardians and Antanasia finished their initial plan of attack about an hour later. They'd use Antanasia's creatures as spies and Tooth's fairies as messengers to relay any information that the spies learned about what Pitch was scheming this time. Once they'd gathered enough facts, they'd plan accordingly and strike the Boogieman down. It seemed simple enough, but to Jack, he knew it probably wouldn't be.

Since the reindeer still hadn't returned and North was out of snow globes (they'd planned to get some more and use them for emergency transportation across the globe), the Guardians were forced to stay at the Blackwell Haunted House overnight. Antanasia claimed that she'd send some vampires to retrieve the reindeer right away so that they could leave, but the smirk she wore so well said otherwise; she'd probably just wait until morning to send the command, simply to annoy them.

Beds had to be located for the Guardians to sleep in, so the spirit of Halloween left her office and lead the way down the hall, taking a different route from the route they'd taken to get there from the roof. Eventually, they arrived at a set of rooms lined up and down a hallway. And by up and down, I mean literally _up and down._ There were bedroom doors in the ceiling and in the floor. Bunny ended up taking a room in the floor since he was used to tunnels, while the other Guardians preferred being closer to the sky and flew or climbed upwards into their respective rooms (North was tall and strong enough to pull his weight through the doorway). Once inside, each room respected gravity, but it was rather dizzying to see a door on the floor or on the ceiling.

Jack settled down to sleep. The room had changed its decor and temperature to match his personality and his type of spirit, so now it was several degrees colder and the walls were a rich blue with a snowflake design trailing across them. It was soothing, being in a room that greatly resembled his room back at the Workshop, but Jack found that he just couldn't get to sleep. He tossed and turned, but no cigar.

Finally, he got up and paced the floor, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... Something was bothering him; in fact, it was a certain some _one:_ Antanasia Hallows.

What bothered him was that they knew practically nothing about her, and her mysterious demeanour didn't reveal much either. She was a very ancient spirit who managed the spirits of the dead year-round and who controlled the night of Halloween. She was a shadow spirit, like Pitch, but not as evil, it seemed; even her sand was a different colour - a rich violet, not as dark as the Nightmare King's but not as light as Sandy's. She seemed to hate Pitch for some reason and she held some impressive contempt for the Guardians, Bunny in particular, so they must have had some sort of confrontation in the past. He knew that her Romanian name meant "one that is reborn; immortal". Had she been born in Romania, when she'd been human?

How old was she, anyway? _Well,_ Jack mused. _How long has humanity had a concept of death?_ Veeerrryy old, was the answer. About 200 000 years old, give or take.

A sharp knock on the door in the floor startled him out of his relentless pacing and he cautiously went to open it. Antanasia stood below him, scythe in hand after she'd knocked on his door with it. "Hello, Jack," she greeted in that strange accent of hers. "May I come in?"

He nodded hesitantly and she jumped up with inhuman speed into his room. Jack's jumped back, shocked, but the Halloween spirit was too busy regarding his room to notice. "I see the adjustment spell did its job," she murmured, then raised her voice to a normal volume. "I could smell your anxiety from miles away."

Making a face, Jack sat down on his bed, kind of put off by that statement. "I guess I couldn't sleep, Antanasia," he admitted sheepishly.

Antanasia nodded and twirled her scythe distractedly. Then, she inquired, "Would you call me Ana, if you don't mind?"

Jack's jaw fell open a bit and he struggled to close it. Why would she want him to call her by a nickname? He'd thought she felt complete and utter disdain and nothing else for the Guardians. "Um... why?"

"Oh, no reason. I just guess that Antanasia is a very long name and it must be a mouthful for you to pronounce," came the nonchalant reply. Antanasia, or, should I say, _Ana,_ refused to look at the winter spirit.

"O-Okay..." Jack agreed. "... _Ana,_ " he finished.

She smiled at him then; just a tiny one, but it was there. To be honest, she'd been lonely that night in her vast rooms and a ghost had informed her off the still awake status of one of her guests, so she'd happily gone to investigate and had heard the lithe footsteps of Jack as he paced above her head. "So, what's giving you insomnia?" she demanded, sitting down next to him on the bed.

Jack recoiled a bit from her, suddenly remembering the fierce orange eyes that had pinned him to the wall when he'd first gone here, but he glanced up and the orange eyes looking back at him now held an expression that he could recognize easily, having seen it in his own eyes several times in the reflective lake at Burgess (his previous home from moving to the Workshop at the North Pole): loneliness.

And so the Guardian of Fun eased his tense posture a bit, feeling empathy for another spirit for the first time in his life as Jack Frost as he befriended a spirit regarded by most as the most dangerous spirit on Earth second to Pitch: Ana Hallows.


End file.
